Trade-deficit Crisis

July 1, 1986

THE HOUSE Banking Committee has approved a bill to establish a 16-member Council On Industrial Competitiveness as an independent agency in the executive branch. The committee reports that such a council is needed because of a situation that has reached crisis proportions. It refers to the U.S. trade deficit, which last year was a staggering $150 billion. Serious problems have surfaced in this new global environment to which the United States must now adjust.

I fear Americans and their debilitating self-satisfaction with conditions here at home seem not to comprehend what is happening to us economically around the world. The capricious action on the New York Stock Exchange and other international markets calls for some measured restraint before a situation of unmanageable proportions develops.